Kelly

1

Four Mountain Wolves Leslie Marmon Silko

• Kelly
• Carolina
• Bell C

2
Leslie Marmon Silko

• 1948-
• Albuquerque, New Mexico
• Native American
• Grew up speaking Keresan, Indian language
• Published first story, 1969, The Man To Send
  Rain Clouds
• Today considered central figure of the Native
  American Renaissance
• 1974 published Laguna Woman, collection of poetry
• Still publishing today

3
Four Mountain WolvesLeslie Marmon Silko

• Gray mist wolf
• From mountain frozen lake
• Traveling southwest
• over deep snow crust singing
• Ah ouoo
• Ah ouoo
• the fog hangs belly high
• and the deer have all gone.
• Ah ouoo
• Ah ouoo

• Gray mist wolf
• following the edge of the Sun.
• Wirling snow wolf
• spill the yellow-eyed wind
• on blue lake stars
• Orion
• Saturn.
• Swirling snow wolf
• tear the heart from the silence
• rip the tongue from the darkness
• Shake the earth with your breathing
• and explode gray ice dreams of eternity.

4

• Mountain white mist wolf
• frozen crystals on silver hair
• icy whiskers
• steaming silver mist from his mouth
• Gray fog wolf
• silent
• swift and wet
• howling along cliffs of midnight sky,
• you have traveled the years
• on your way to Black Mountain.

• Call to the centuries as you pass
• howling wolf wind
• their fear is your triumph
• they huddle in the distances
• weak.
• Lean wolf running
• where miles become faded in time,
• the urge the desire is always with me
• the dream of green eyes wolf
• as she reached the swollen belly elk
• softly
• her pale lavender outline
• startled into eternity.

5
Poem Summary

• 1st Section (stanzas 1 and 2) a wolf looking for
  food in winter
• 2nd Section (stanza 3) a violent wolf

• Stanzas 4 and 5 describe the effect of winter on
  the wolves
• Stanza 6 wolf howling
• Stanza 7 a wolf attacking a pregnant elk

Structure free verse
6
Themes/Motifs

• Motifs
• Nature
• Time
• Cruelties
• Violence
• Themes
• 1. Time in nature is measured by its changing
  seasons.
• 2. For one creature to live, another must die.

7
Imagery

• Visual Imagery
• Description of wolves
• Description of nature
• Audio
• Wolves howling (ah ouoo)
• Touch
• cold

8
Symbolism

• Wolves
• What stays the same, and changes over time
• Brutality and ferocity of natural process
• Their cruelty mirrors human cruelty
• They are nature (mist, fog, ect.)

9
Figures of Speech

• Onomatopoeia
• Personification
• Hyperbole

10
Historical Context

• Native American pueblo tribes have a close and
  intertwined relationship with the natural world.
• The landscapes, the seasons, and the animals
  that inhabit the world are all integral parts of
  Native American life.
• Native American tribes rhetorically constructed
  their closeness to nature in general and the wolf
  in particular.

11

Work Cited